PBS Food Show Host Reveals The Food Items You Should Always Buy in Bulk From Costco

Danielle Chang (@thedaniellechang) has spent decades channelling her love for food and travel to endorse the marriage of Asian and American cultures. She told Joy Sauce that her relationship to food is “enthusiastic, curious, and self-satisfying.” While she explores the foods and the city streets with her camera, her cook usually prepares her meals. But in a recent conversation with Food & Wine, she shared that, at home, she loves to do the cooking. There are two ingredients she buys in bulk from Costco, and her kitchen cupboards are always stocked with.

Chang is an Emmy-nominated producer, content creator, explorer, the founder of Lucky Rice, and the author of Lucky Rice Cookbook. In the latest season of her PBS show Lucky Chow, she ventured into the streets of her homeland, Taiwan, which is dotted with traditional teahouses, bustling night markets, multicolored scooters, hanging lanterns, and old lampposts. She stopped by shops tucked into the markets and relished Taiwanese delicacies, such as boba bubble tea, buttery pineapple pastries, and iron eggs, as also depicted in the season's promo.

She ambled across Dihua Street and tried the infamous shaved almond snow ice and shaved mango ice. Hiking through the foothills of Taitung, she visited a Buddhist temple and sipped ritualistic tea served by the monks in Taiwanese clay pots. Chang focused her camera when she came across sweaty vats of black-bean soy sauce, barrels of assorted sauces, and fresh tofu made from the water of a bubbling mud volcano. On a rocky tidal zone along the Pacific, she captured vistas of an enchanting herb garden.

On the hilltop, she made a stopover at a restaurant run by Rukai people and plunged into the woods with men to hunt for a wild boar at night. In the dark alleyways along the port of Keelung, she walked to a bar that seemed straight out of In The Mood For Love. Once back home, she shifted into the cook’s role and picked up her Costco grocery list. Here are the two food items that are pulled from her local Costco’s shelves in lion’s share, because she swears by them in her everyday life.

Fresh fruits

“I love their fresh fruit aisles. I use a lot of their products. I eat a lot of fruit, and I like to buy it in bulk. And for dessert, I usually just serve a big platter of cut fruit,” Chang said to Food & Wine. “Costco has amazing variety and good value, and they have Korean pears, and often they have pomelos. They always have mandarin oranges, and I mean, I've seen a lot of Asian tropical fruits actually at Costco, so I think it's a good source for fruit.” Tropical fruits, she added, are a great way to end a dinner party.

Rice

Chang said she prefers purchasing large quantities of shelf-stable ingredients. Rice is one of them. “I definitely buy my rice in bulk. I like short-grain Japanese-style rice. But I buy my rice in a 32-pound bag. Well, no, it's a 20-pound bag, but yeah,” said the food lover.

You can follow Danielle Chang (@thedaniellechang) on Instagram to stay tuned to her food and cultural adventures.